The Internet has been abuzz with speculation that Former MD Congressman Frank Kratovil’s decision to work for the Prince George’s County DA is a tell-tale sign he won’t mount a challenge to Andy Harris (R-MD1), who won Kratovil’s seat in a bitter 2010 campaign that gave rise to Tea Party candidates.
That’s all news to Kratovil.
“I have not ruled out running, I’m still considering it,” Kratovil said in an interview with the Spy last night. “In the last three weeks I’ve had a number of people calling–urging me to run…simply because I’m taking a job doesn’t mean I’ve ruled out running.”
Kratovil expressed concern about the politics of division in the nation- blaming a minority of extremists in both parties for stalling progress for the majority of average Americans.
“I feel we’ve been taken over by the far-right now, the pendulum has swung from one extreme to the other,” Kratovil lamented. “I feel that Wayne [Gilchrest] and I always tried to find that middle ground, and I think we’ve lost that in this country.”
Kratovil seemed calmly infuriated about what he perceives is a policy gap that favors corporations at the expense of seniors and the middle class.
“I see what’s happening, we’re cutting benefits for special needs children and considering medical vouchers for seniors to try to save money–while at the same time corporations aren’t paying any taxes…not only are they not paying taxes, they’re getting refunds. One of the things we have to recognize as a nation is that we have extremists controlling the debate, and one of the things a leader has to do is to try and find that middle ground to make some progress, there has to be a balance…we need to find some way to get there…because the middle class is getting crushed.”
Kratovil made a case for the success of compromise using his experience as prosecutor.
“I had plenty of cases when I knew someone was guilty [of a first degree offense], but for whatever reason the evidence wasn’t sufficient to convict–or evidence was suppressed, so I would convict on the second degree [offense], and that is better than… going to trial and losing, because if you lose, you get nothing. Those are tough decisions based on the facts and circumstances at the time,” Kratovil explained. “In dealing truthfully with issue of the deficit, every neutral source, including the Bi-Partisan Deficit Commission, many economists, and S&P said we could not deal with the deficit issue without a balanced approach, but Harris and others on the far right insisted these [neutral sources] were focused on cuts in spending, which was not the case. They were calling for a balanced approach and they criticized the fact that there were no discussions of revenue in the last budget deal.”
The vote against the new healthcare law brought Kratovil much criticism from the far left in 2010, but Kratovil explains that there were a lot of good policies in the law, which he tried to protect in voting against repeal of the healthcare law seven months later. Kratovil insists that the biggest issue facing America over the last few years is high unemployment, which he felt would have been made worse with legal mandates to small business to provide healthcare coverage to workers.
“The number one issue still is jobs. Every issue you deal with at the Congressional level has to be viewed recognizing the issue of jobs,” Kratovil said. “I was concerned the [healthcare requirements to small business] would have a negative effect on job growth, but I was also asked during the 2010 campaign whether I would vote for blanket repeal, and I said ‘no’ because I thought the federal exchanges were a good thing, [as well as] allowing kids to stay on their parents’ insurance [until age 26], and I thought closing the donut hole was also a good thing.”
Kratovil also explained his voted against repealing the individual insurance requirement in the healthcare law.
“You can’t get rid of the ‘pre-existing exclusion’ and also go without requiring everyone to get insurance, you can’t do both, so I voted against repeal,” Kratovil said. “You can’t require insurance companies to provide appropriate insurance benefits when you are only requiring the sick to get insurance.”
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